There was a buzzing sense of anticipation in the classroom at Armstrong School on Monday as part of Newcastle’s Excelsior Academy as the class awaited the arrival of Newcastle United winger Gabriel Obertan. When he arrived he was greeted by an enthusiastic ‘Bonjour!’ from the assembled class of year 9s. This was a French lesson out of the ordinary. Obertan was there to launch Newcastle United Foundation’s new initiative, the Double Club. Routes into Languages North East, based at Newcastle University, have teamed up with the foundation and the city council to produce an exciting programme of language learning through football. The initiative is now being rolled out in the region and two lucky schools have been selected to receive coaching from Newcastle United to be combined with their French language classes. Resources have been produced by Newcastle and Sunderland local authorities to compliment the sessions and are freely available to schools in the region for the teaching of French, Spanish and German. These can be requested from www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/northeast.
The pupils at Armstrong school asked Mr Obertan a series of questions in his native French, he replied in the same language and pupils then translated what he had said. Four television cameras and local newspaper and radio journalists looked on as the pupils learned about a professional footballer’s pastimes, hobbies and favourite food. Mr Obertan got into the spirit of the event, later telling the press that it was ‘great to see the kids making an effort in French’.
Headteacher Lynn Aitchison said: ‘With the numbers of pupils choosing to study a foreign language we need all the help we can get to boost the numbers and using Newcastle United resources and foundation staff will be the perfect combination.’
The project will also be launched in the coming weeks in Sunderland with Sunderland AFC Foundation running a parallel project across the Sunderland and South Tyneside regions. Undergraduates studying modern languages at Newcastle and Sunderland Universities will also assist in the running of the project in their roles as Routes into Languages Student Ambassadors.
